Numbness in the fingers is a common clinical symptom, and often patients with numbness in the fingers are mistaken for cervical spondylosis in the outpatient clinic. In fact, there are more common causes of finger numbness, but in many cases, the cause of finger numbness is not cervical spondylosis. Here are a few common causes of finger numbness: For the elderly, the most common disease that causes hand numbness is cervical spondylosis. When people enter middle age, some organs tend to degenerative changes, when the cervical disc degenerative later, often leading to cervical disc protrusion or cervical vertebral body or joint synapse hyperplasia or hypertrophy (commonly known as osteophytes), these protruding cervical discs or osteophytes once the compression of the adjacent cervical nerve roots, sympathetic nerves, spinal cord or blood vessels, there will be cervical spondylosis, causing numbness in the fingers, and even dizziness, weakness of the limbs, walking limp, and urinary and fecal disorders occur. In cervical spondylosis with nerve root compression (called nerve root type cervical spondylosis), in addition to numbness and abnormal sensation in the fingers, there are other symptoms, such as soreness in the bones of the neck and shoulders, radiating pain in the upper limbs or movement disorders. It is not difficult to confirm the diagnosis of cervical spondylosis, as most patients can establish the diagnosis by taking an X-ray, but sometimes an MRI is required. There is also a simple way to check for cervical spondylosis: one person holds the affected head, one hand holds the affected upper limb and extends it by 90°, and both hands push and pull in the opposite direction at the same time, and the diagnosis of cervical spondylosis can be initially confirmed if there is radiating pain or numbness. Another common cause is thoracic outlet syndrome, a disease that is difficult to understand for laypeople to speak of and involves anatomy. In layman’s terms, it is caused by anatomical factors such as ligaments, bones, and muscles on both sides of the neck or compression of the subclavian vessels and brachial plexus nerves on one side of the neck. Clinical observation shows that people who frequently lift and carry heavy objects can cause hypertrophy of the shoulder girdle muscles and ligaments, which can cause compression symptoms of the neurovascular bundle, such as abnormal sensation, wood, numbness, and pain on the inner side of the arm. Workers who frequently over-extend their upper limbs or certain sports players, workers who are in a long-term position with their shoulders extended forward, elderly people and middle-aged people with hunched backs are prone to develop symptoms of thoracic outlet syndrome. Normal movements of the upper extremities such as abduction of the upper arms, backward sagging of the shoulders, extension of the neck, turning of the face to the opposite side, and deep inhalation cause an increase in the degree of nerve and vascular compression resulting in increased symptoms. The diagnosis of the disease is difficult, although there are many methods of examination, but it mainly relies on the specialist’s knowledge of the disease, detailed medical history and comprehensive examination to arrive at a comprehensive judgment. Another common disease that causes hand numbness is cerebrovascular disease, known as stroke in Chinese medicine. For middle-aged people over 40 years old, if they often have headaches, dizziness, light-headedness, numbness of the limbs, swelling of the tongue and other symptoms, and if the patient usually has hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, cerebral arteriosclerosis and other diseases, they should pay more attention to the occurrence of stroke. In short, to confirm the diagnosis of hand numbness, we need to see an orthopedic specialist, and we need to refer to cervical spine X-ray, magnetic resonance imaging, electromyography and other auxiliary tests to make a clear conclusion. Once diagnosed, if the symptoms are still mild, they can be improved to varying degrees by regular non-surgical treatment, but if the symptoms are obvious and there is significant atrophy of the inner hand muscles, surgical treatment should be taken in time to stop the development of the disease, so as not to cause irreversible and serious atrophy of the inner hand muscles, resulting in serious hand dysfunction.